Trust Retains 'Good' CQC Rating

19 September 2018

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following inspections of its services and leadership in 2018.

It’s the second consecutive time the Trust, which manages Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford, has received the positive rating following a previous comprehensive inspection in October 2014.

The latest rating forms part of a report into the care provided by the Trust, which was published on Wednesday 19 September andidentifies multiple areas of outstanding practice.

These include a newly developed frailty service that is starting to reduce the number of patients admitted to Leighton Hospital and the creation of an Advanced Nurse Practitioner Rapid Response team, which sees acutely ill patients being supported in their own home and helps to avoid hospital admissions.

Tracy Bullock, Chief Executive of Mid Cheshire Hospitals, said: “We’re delighted to have maintained our ‘Good’ CQC rating. This positive result is not only good news for the Trust and its staff, but for the local community. It offers assurance that the services we provide are delivered in fit for purpose environments by caring and committed staff.

“We would like to thank everyone who works for the Trust, including all of our colleagues out in the community, for their dedication and compassion and for contributing towards this result.

“Whilst the report contains a great number of positives, there is still room for improvement and our staff are already hard at work addressing the areas that were identified in the report as ‘Requires Improvement’. Some of these areas have already seen vast improvements since the inspection and we will continue to make improvements in order to provide the best care possible for the population we serve.”

The CQC, which is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, completed its inspections into the Trust during March and April this year. NHS Improvement, which is responsible for overseeing foundation trusts and NHS trusts, also completed a ‘Use of Resources’ inspection in March.

Urgent and emergency care at both Leighton Hospital and Victoria Infirmary, as well as medical care and maternity care at Leighton Hospital, were looked at as part of the unannounced inspection. Community healthcare services provided through Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership (CCICP) were also inspected.

The Trust’s rating was also based on a ‘well-led’ inspection, which looked at leadership in the organisation and consisted of interviews and focus groups.

Throughout the inspections the CQC focused on ‘Key Lines of Enquiry’. These are questions that seek to determine if the Trust and its services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The CQC then provides each element with a rating of either ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’. The ratings are given to each service inspected, as well as each site and the organisation as a whole.

Across Mid Cheshire Hospitals, effectiveness, caring and well-led remained the same as the Trust’s previous inspection. Responsiveness improved from ‘Requires to Improvement’ to ‘Good’ and safety was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’.

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “The trust was committed to improving services by learning from when things go well and when they go wrong, promoting training, research and innovation. The executive group were cohesive and remarkably consistent in its response to questions. I was encouraged to see that directors gave account of their personal walkabout to monitor the quality of care.”